Republican environmentalist will speak at forum to appeal to conservative lawmakers

10:36 PM,
Nov. 23, 2012

Jesse Kharbanda, Indianapolis, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, is shown in his office at 3951 N. Meridian St. July 14, 2010. Kharbanda, the son of a couple from India, is a Rhodes Scholar who was raised in St. Louis, earned undergraduate degrees in economics and environmental studies from the University of Chicago, then got his Masters degree from Oxford University in England.

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Confronted with a Republican super majority in the Statehouse, one of Indiana's largest advocacy groups for environmental causes is trying a new technique to appeal to the conservative lawmakers and the voters who put them in office.

Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, says he hopes his group's message of being good stewards of the Earth will appeal to conservative Christians, particularly on the topic of climate change.

That's why the environmental council invited Paul Douglas, a Christian Republican meteorologist and business owner, to speak ...